December 1, 2014

Hey guys!

Things here are fantastic! We got our money for the month so we can buy groceries! Life is good :)

This week went by so fast I can't believe it. I remember being a greenie and wondering if time would fly by life everyone says it does. I guess I just had to get to this point and experience it myself to see how true it was.

Elder A and I are having a great time. We're still working with C, trying to get him ready to be baptized. He has a sincere desire, but alcohol can be really hard for people to leave behind sometimes. Make sure you keep him in your prayers!

We had a great thanksgiving, ate tons of turkey and candied yams, etc. it was great. Plus we got to chill with members all day and play soccer. We also did a service project and cleaned the church.

Over my mission I've come to love the Spanish language. I love the culture, I love learning, and I love getting to speak it. I think it's amazing how humble the people are, and how hardworking (I think immigrants especially are) and family oriented they are.

I found a scripture that kind of sums up how I feel about how my mission has changed me so far. It's a classic

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Ether 12:27

Before my mission I was a very different person from who I am now. I feel like I'm happier, more charitable, and more outgoing. All things that I've gained from my mission. And I feel like it's the same way for everyone who discovers the gospel.

I'm excited to see all of you this Christmas. Especially so I can issue a formal challenge to Sam, who seems to think he'll be able to take me down when I get home.

Les amo

Jake

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias

November 24, 2014

Hey guys

This week was pretty good. We found two new investigators - a couple of 12-13 year old kids. Their parents aren't very interested, but they're very friendly and open to having us teach their boys,  so that's cool. Elder A and I are getting along great. He's the first companion I've had on my mission who I feel is a really good friend as well. So we're having a good time.

The highlights of this week were mostly culinary. On Friday we had the branch Thanksgiving party, complete with candied yams and fried turkey with cranberry sauce. Then on Friday we went over to Brother M's house for hamburgers.

It was a life changing experience.

Bro M doesn't just grill hamburgers, he starts by folding the patties over slices of cheese then wraps each one in bacon and grills it over charcoal. It's amazing.

 Then for desert we had peanut-butter filled brownies and ice cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

All I all this week has gone by really fast. We teach English classes on Wednesday nights and play soccer with the branch on Thursdays, so that helps a lot.

Last Friday my companion's bed fell on me.

We have a bunk bed, and I sleep on the bottom.  After an eventful day, I was lying there thinking about the things you think about before you go to sleep (food, did I leave the iron on, what am I going to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning, rating the sisters in the zone by attractiveness, etc.) when all of the sudden I hear from above an ominous creak. I have just enough time to make a sound of confusion/terror when the mattress (and Argyle with it) falls from above and lands unceremoniously on my face mid-shout, driving the air from my lungs. This made a sound that I can only describe as a rubber mallet coming down full-force on an unsuspecting duck. Thankfully my companion had the good sense to get off of me quickly, and I escaped with a bruised forearm.

Turns out his mattress board had been shaken loose earlier by all of us roughousing/trying to take down Elder L. I guess that was God's way of saying "knock it off".

I didn't sleep very well of the rest of the night.

So that was my week. It was a fast one. I sure miss the snow, and skiing, and mountains. All it does is rain here, and there's nothing do to outdoors in Lincoln CA. Mom will be happy to know there are no cliffs here. I checked. Just miles of rich white suburbs as far as the eye can see.

Time really is flying by. I'm excited to talk to you all this Christmas.

I'll finish these last six months strong, and then I'll be home to experience Swig and the Greek Food Truck and hang out with all of you people.

Have a great week

Love

Jake

p.s.

You were asking about the members and how they feed us:

I love tamales. My favorite Mexican food is caramelos though. It's like a Mexican Philly cheese steak. Don't ask my why it's called a caramelo. It just is. And it's delicious

Our members do ok feeding us, which is good because our allotment doesn't cover our dinners, but sister M (codename: the fun-sucker, a sister missionary) had complicated things by saying she doesn't want to eat in the same homes as us.

So, if at any point you think to yourself: "I feel like sending jake a package. What should I put in it?" Food is always good. Not just cookies though.

I didn't get to be as buff as I am eating top ramen and peanut butter sandwiches. ;)

 

17 November, 2014

Hey guys, I'm on the ground in Lincoln and things here are great. My

 companion, Elder A., is really cool. Supposedly I'm "follow-up

 training" him, but he doesn't even need it. His Spanish is excellent

 and he's a lot of fun to be around.

 Plus he's also a skier so I have someone to commiserate with as I

 spend another winter trunky for the wide open slopes of park city.

 The members here are great. We ate with a member family from Peru, Los

 A., and they made us pollo salteado. It was ricissimo!

 We live in a cramped apartment with the Zone Leaders in

 Rocklin, where all the rich white people live. Elder L. and Elder

 C. are alright. Rocklin is nice area, but

 the majority of our work is in Lincoln, about 5-10 minutes away by

 car.

 It was cool to go to the trainers meeting in Roseville and see all the

 new greenies coming in. There was one Spanish elder - elder C.-

 and two Hermanas.

 So yeah. We have a baptismal date set with a guy named C. for the

7th of December, but he didn't make it to church this week. I don't

 know how solid he is - we've only had one lesson with him so far. This

 area seems to have the slowest work of any I've been in so far, but

 the branch members are great. I think they're really missionary-minded

 and willing to help out. I can already tell I'm going to love the time

 I get to spend here.

 Our address is …, in case you'd like to send me some food because Elder L.

 is a large Tongan and eats everyone else's (it's okay, we still love

 him).

 That's about everything for this week.

 Love

 Elder Nichols

10 November, 2014

Hey guys!

I'm going to Lincoln City. My new companion's name is elder A. I'll be leaving Gridley tomorrow at around 8 am. I'll only be training him for one transfer. So... Yeah. I'm kind of sad to be leaving Gridley. There are a lot of great members here. But I'm sure Lincoln will be great. I'll probably end up spending Christmas there. Lincoln is the one area I really don't know anything about and have never visited. I have no idea how much Spanish work is there or anything. It'll be interesting.

I got asked to give a testimony on Sunday. Elder H. was supposed to give a talk, but forgot to write it, so it ended up shorter than expected.

This week was super slow. I'm spending today packing up all my stuff since I wasn't expecting to leave and got it all unpacked this transfer. So this is a lot of fun. Transfers are always hectic. The hardest part is finding rides. Hermano O from Yuba is going to be driving me down to Lincoln. He's like the Spanish Missionary Bus. He always takes time to pick up missionaries no matter where they are and get them moved. I'm pretty sure he's driving someone just about every transfer. That's one great thing about Spanish-speaking members. They're always such humble and generous people.

Well, I'm coming up on another winter in California, and then it's the home stretch. Things are going great, and I'm looking forward to this part of my mission.

I'll send you guys an update on the new area next week.

Love

Jake

Great Hike!

November 3, 2014
Hey everyone!

So hiking today was great. We went to a place called Feather Falls. It's about an 8 mile trip total, and it was a lot of fun. California's finally cooling down so it wasn't too hot. The only bad thing was that the rivers are really low because of the drought - but that meant we could climb around the dried-up mouth of the falls right by the cliff face. I forgot my camera so I had some other elders take pictures. I'll send them to you hopefully next week. It was a really pretty area.

J., our newest member is doing great. He got up and bore his testimony yesterday, which was exciting. It's really cool to see the changes he's made in his life to become a member of the church.

I can understand your troubles writing an email about a slow week. It was the same thing here.

I really miss the mountains and snow. I actually dreamed of skiing a few nights ago, no kidding. Seems like my subconscious is reflexively adjusting to prepare my body for the coming ski - season. Oh well. There's always next year. Unless of course President Marston authorizes the zone trip to Lake Tahoe that I've been pitching to him.

Well, there's only one more week in the transfer and I'm sure it won't be as boring as this one was.

My scripture for the week is Philippians 4:13. One of my favorites.

Love,

Jake

 

27 October, 2014

Hey guys,

This week was pretty busy for us. First off was the zone blitz on Thursday, which was eat because elder H. and I split up and got a ton of work done. Then I had to translate for stake conference on Saturday and Sunday which was hard, but ultimately really good for me. Translating from Spanish to English is many times harder than going from Spanish into your native language, but I picked up on a lot of words that I didn't know and subsequently learned. The bad part was that it's pretty taxing mentally - taking the ACT test is the closest thing I can liken it to - and I did it for all four hours on Saturday and most of the Sunday session because nobody else felt like helping. So I went to our baptism on Sunday with a pretty gnarly headache. It's just been a crazy weekend.

Speaking of the baptism - it was great. Tons of people showed up, we had a lot of support from the branch, and J. was baptized by his son, J. Jr. It was great. I feel like we didn't really do a whole lot. The Lord prepares His children, and we as missionaries put in time to teach them and that's it. It seems to me like baptisms just happen when they happen. You can't force things. You just have to let Heavenly Father do His work on His schedule.

All in all it was a very spiritual experience, once I got ahold of some ibuprofen.

So yeah. That was my week. Pretty busy, which was a nice change.

Love

Jake

20 October, 2014

Hey guys!

It was great to hear about your trip to Arizona. I hope you had an awesome time. I think I'll have to make myself a homemade o- lineman sometime. Sounds delicious.

Our week hasn't been too interesting.  J. is still on date to be baptized but we had to move his baptism to the 26th because this week is stake conference, so we're going to baptize him on a Sunday.

This week the weather got down to 70 degrees for the first time, which was nice. Apparently there's still a huge problem with the drought though, so I hope we get some more rain this winter.

Other than that everything is going well. I have to translate for stake conference, so pray for me! It's going to be hard going from English to Spanish rather than the other way around.

This Thursday we're going to be doing something called a missionary blitz in Live Oak where all the missionaries from our zone go to work in a single area for the whole day. In theory this will kind of jump start the work in that area by visiting a ton of people and getting everyone excited about the work

One awesome experience that we had this week happened while we were in Live Oak. We were about to leave to head back to Gridley when a name popped into my head of someone else we could go visit.  At first I figured he'd probably still be at work, but I felt like we should go check anyway, so we went over. Turns out he was just getting home and he had some bad news. He's getting divorced from his wife because of differences over the church (he's the only member in his family). We shared a scripture with him (2 Nephi 4:26-31) and he broke down and told us how much he'd been needing to hear something from Heavenly Father and had felt like he wasn't getting any answers. We talked about testimonies and how the adversary is always looking for chances to pull us down if we let him, but that if we focus on moving forward with faith he can't do anything to hold us back.

So that was a powerful testimony to me of the spirit's guidance in missionary work, and I would encourage all of you to study that chapter if you get the chance. It's a good one :)

So that was my week. It was a pretty good one.

I've heard there's supposed to be a record snowfall this year, which hopefully means good skiing?

Mom:

I got the package! Thanks a ton! It was just what I needed. I also got Jess's letter and the 10 dollars. Thanks for adding to my food stores! Maintaining this much muscle mass isn't easy on a tight budget.

Let Jess know that after much consideration I've decided to be a missionary for Halloween, as the candy payout from members will likely be 50% higher, mitigating the doors slammed in my face and still allowing me to do missionary work.

I miss you guys too and I'm looking forward to seeing you all again!

Love,

Jake

October 13, 2014

13 October 2014

Hey guys!

This week was pretty uneventful, apart from getting a traffic ticket, which was lame. We did some service, moved a piano, and did regular missionary stuff. Friday was interviews with President. He told me I'm probably going to train next transfer, which should be fun.

J. is still doing well. He struggles sometimes, but he has a sincere desire to be baptized. He'll definitely make it to his baptism if he keeps it up. It's been cool to see the changes in him as he's learned about the gospel. His other son D. came to church yesterday, so I'm thinking we'll try to teach them both next time we go over.

Were also teaching O. M., a recent convert in our branch. He's from Cuba and tells us all about life under communism. It's pretty interesting to hear it from someone who's actually been there.

My spiritual thought for the week is about the Prophet. I've gotten questions before on my mission about how we "elect" the Prophet in our church, and it's always interesting to watch how people react when we explain the Prophet's calling and how members of the Twelve become the Prophet. I think it's a principle that resonates with a lot of people because they understand the value in receiving continuing revelation from Heavenly Father. To me it's a testimony of how much Heavenly Father cares about us and our progression. It takes faith to follow and sustain the Prophet, and to study his teachings like modern scripture. I'm grateful for President Monson and all the work he and the other general authorities do. With that in mind, I want to spend more time studying general conference talks, so I'm going to read through it again this week. I invite all of you to so the same with at least one or two talks that stood out to you. I've received answers to personal questions through general conference more times than I can count. It's a huge blessing.

I remember learning subjunctive in the MTC. Now that I think about it again, it's pointless and dumb. But to be honest I can't really imagine Spanish without it now. It's just a part of the language. Haha I was pretty discouraged by it at first. I remember wishing they had just told me about it from the beginning and saved us all a lot of time.

We actually got to watch meet the Mormons last Wednesday after Zone Meeting. I enjoyed it a lot. It seems like critics will always find something to criticize though. It's their job, after all. Those Pharisees.

The point of the movie isn't really to explain doctrine. We have the scriptures and church materials for that, and lds.org. The point of the movie was to show that we aren't a bunch of polygamists living in the desert with horse drawn carriages. That's unfortunately where the church has to start, rather than explaining doctrine, because it's such a common misconception.

Love you guys

Here's to Oktoberfest solving all the world's problems,

Jake

Baptism Date Set!

6 October, 2014

Hey guys!

So the biggest news this week is that J. R. has a baptismal date for the 25th. We had a really great lesson with him last week - he gave us all of his coffee and cigarettes to throw away! So here's hoping he can stick with his commitment to keep the word of wisdom. His son, J.R., Jr. is a member, so it's been cool to see him helping his dad learn. Make sure you keep them both in your prayers!

Other than that this week hasn't been too interesting. We got out and saw a lot of people. I've noticed that my Spanish is doing better than ever. I think The Lord is helping me out a lot. My companion doesn't talk much. I've been trying to give him time to talk in lessons, but I feel bad because it just seems painful for him. His Spanish is still at MTC level even though he's been out almost as long as me. Do you have any thoughts? Should I just let him go at his own pace or keep trying to push him along? How can I help him?

There's really not a whole lot to report on for this week. General conference was great, like always. I especially liked Elder Klebingat's talk. There was a lot there I needed to hear. I also liked the one about "which way we face". I can't remember who gave it off the top of my head. I took a lot of notes though, which helps me pay attention to the talks from start to finish. 4 hours can be a bit much sometimes.

All in all, flying solo hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, especially when I have the gift of tongues. Things are going well.

I'm sorry to hear that things didn't go so well at the BYU game. Hopefully byu is better next season when I'm home.

I'm looking to experiencing all of the culinary delights that Swig and the Greek Food Truck have to offer (Sam tells me that lamb gyros are for "real men" by the way), and spending time with you guys when I get home. For now I know that I'm doing something worthwhile and important, and that I have Heavenly Fathers help. This week has been a big testimony builder for me.

Love,

Jake

Hey everyone!

I'm staying in Gridley for another six weeks, which means I get to enjoy our sweet house awhile longer. My new companion will be Elder H. He's a nice guy. I know him already, like most of the Spanish missionaries. There aren't that many of us. 

Everything is going well. We have a good teaching pool, and one guy in particular, Jesus Robles, looks like he'll probably get baptized if he keeps doing as well as he has. It's great to see someone with a sincere desire to learn. He even invited us to come every day and teach him, which is great. We've also been talking to Miguel, the son of a recent convert in the branch. I don't know how interested he is, but he said he'd read the Book of Mormon. I'll keep you posted. 

Other than that, things are the same. The weather is finally cooling off, which feels great. We might go hiking for p day today. I'll take some pictures if we do. 

Anyways, that's about it. Love you all!

Jake 

22 september 2014

September 22, 2014

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty slow, but transfers are coming up and it seems like this transfer has gone faster than usual. Both V. and M. are doing well. I have a feeling I'm going to be transferred, so I have to make this last week count. But who knows? It looks like a whole lot of people are going to have to move around for things to work out.

The weather has been cooling down this week, which is great. I'm excited for winter and weather that's not over a hundred degrees. Maybe some rain.

I guess you could say that our week was pretty uneventful too. I've been hearing about some crazy stuff going on the world though, like some new strain of Ebola in Africa and problems not the Middle East. It made me think about my mission scripture, Ether 12:4. I remember one day in high school thinking about all of the stuff that was happening in the world, and what kind of environment I would have to raise my kids in someday. I remember thinking that things were looking pretty bad for the most part. When I did my scripture study that night before bed, I found that scripture and it was a bit of personal revelation. It reminded me that as bad as things get, if we have faith we can have hope. That's all that matters. And the more people who have faith, the more "good works" get spread around.

So that's my spiritual thought for the week. I'm glad we have the gospel, and that we were chosen to share it with everyone. It's an awesome responsibility, and one that I'm grateful for. It's taught me so much in these past 15 months that I would never have been able to learn at home. It's crazy to think that I only have 6 transfers left. When did that happen?

There are a lot of things I miss about home. I miss Mountain biking in Dutch hollow (something we should do when I get home Dad), and video games, girls, and yes, I even miss you lot.

But my mission has helped me grow so much that giving those things up for two years doesn't really seem like a sacrifice, or even a fair trade. It's been a huge blessing to me. I'll have time to enjoy college when I get home, but for the rest of my mission I'm going to focus on the things The Lord wants me to learn.

Sam, you look like quite the stud in that there Homecoming picture. Way to go!

I hadn't heard anything about the Ogden temple, but that's cool that you saw the dedication. I'd like to go there when I get back.

Keep me updated on BYUs season will ya dad? Here's hoping they go undefeated!

Love you all, and have a great week. I'll be on for a bit

Jake

Mom,

I did get my package :) the food is really good, as the homies will agree. They've partaken liberally of the toffee. I'm hoarding the granola to myself though.

Also, thanks for being such a great mom. Not all missionaries get packages from home. Plus thanks for preparing me to be a Spanish missionary. I think if it weren't for you thinking Spanish is so cool and helping me understand the value of other cultures I wouldn't have been as prepared as I was.

P Day on Wednesday

17 September, 2014

Hey everyone!

Well, today's our P Day, and while it's kind of weird to have a P Day on Wednesday, it's been a good one so far. We woke up early this morning to go help teach the seminary class at the church. It was pretty fun. We got free cupcakes out of it too, which helped. Today we're driving down to Sacramento because Elder R. has an appointment.  It’s nice to get a change of scenery.

P Day is today because on Monday we went to a half-mission conference where Elder Nielson from the quorum of the 70 instructed us on how to use members more in missionary work. According to our numbers, over half our baptisms come from talking to less active members and getting referrals from them. So now we've been told to visit every less active on our lists before we even think about knocking doors, which is fine by me.

He also shared a quote from Elder Holland that I liked a lot. He said that the natural man is like the natural river. It's unhelpful unless ditches are dug to direct its energy toward useful purposes like irrigation, etc. therefore I submit that if all else fails, you can always dig a moat around Jess to minimize her damage to society.

All joking aside, I like the principle behind it. If we don't have the structure of the gospel in our lives, we'll never reach our full potential. And Heavenly Father is all about our potential. I think to Him our potential is more important than where we're at right now. That's why we have the gift of repentance.

This is week 5 of the transfer, which is crazy. It's gone by so fast. I've been told by President that I will probably be transferred after this one. Also, we were never given a mail key for our house and it looks like it'll take a while to get one, so I might not get mail until next transfer regardless of what happens (just so any interested parties know, like Mom or grandmas or attractive young women who want my address. Just covering my bases).

V. is doing well. We also found this guy named M. who's been reading the Book of Mormon on his own, and was actually willing to talk to us about the gospel, so we'll see where that goes.

I don't know if I ever told you about the Peruvian member that I ran into during exchanges back in Chico, but he's been on my mind lately. Just some guy that came up to me and another Elder asking for pamphlets in Spanish, and turned out to be a member recently arrived from Peru to work here in the U.S. At the time my Spanish wasn't that great so I struggled having a conversation with him. I always wonder whatever happened with him. Just goes to show that you have to be ready when the opportunity presents itself.

That's my random thought for the week.

Anyways I love you all and it was great to hear from you. I hope you're in the middle of a fun week. Give Jess a hug for me.

Love,

Jake

Cosecha - Harvest Time

1 September, 2014

Hey guys!

It's great to hear from all of you. Things are going well in Gridley.

Nothing really unusual or interesting happened. We taught V. She's doing ok. She really wants to be baptized, but I think she's scared to ask her husband. So keep her in your prayers!

We've moved into our new house now, and it's sweet! Super nice. The only problem is that we're living with this Elder named who thinks he's in charge of everything. He tried to tell us what rooms we were all getting (even though we were there first) and got all up in my face about it. So I got one of e-homies to tell him I did time in juvy before the mission for beating a kid up and he believed it. I haven't gotten any lip from him since. We've all been having a good laugh about it.

The harvest season is in full swing right now so the work is super slow.

I got your package mom! Thanks for the cookies, they were delicious! Thanks for sharing your temple experience with me. I think the temple is where I've always felt the spirit the most. I think the veil is really thick for me. I don't feel the direction of the spirit as much as some people, which has helped me focus on just building my faith. But in the temple I can always feel the spirit's presence, and it's really refreshing to just take some time and reflect on things. 

I'm doing great. Life is good. The Lord blesses us with so much, it's hard not to be happy.

Love you all!

Jake

the story of the most boring earthquake ever...

August 25, 2014

Hey guys!

This week seems like it went by so fast! We got out to see more people and it felt great.  In other exciting news we found out that tomorrow Elder F. is coming up to Gridley to sign a lease on a house for us to live in with two other elders, so that will be awesome. I'm excited to get a place with a dishwasherJ

     Nothing particularly interesting happened this week. Just this usual stuff. V. is doing well. One of our branch members, Brother P., knows her husband pretty well and is planning on talking to him about letting her be baptized, which would be really cool. So remember her in your prayers.

     I don't remember if I told you guys, but I'm serving around Elder T. again. He's Elder H’s new companion. This is cool, because I get to see him again, but at the same time it's not cool because we have a lot of green missionaries here who don't speak Spanish very well, and we need these native speakers to help them out.  Hopefully pres is able to get some of them training before too long. We got ahold of the list of new greenies coming in and there's two from Utah, one from Nevada, and a guy named H from NYC. So not a lot of hope for more native speakers there. Unless Hiroki is Peruvian-Japanese (which is a thing by the way).

     To be honest mom, any package you sent would probably be safer at the other elders apartment than here. Besides we're probably going to be moving in the next week or so.

You should send me food! And some scripture marking pencils. That's all I can think of at the moment. And some more of that threader floss stuff. Haha the year's supply I brought with me is gone now. (I seriously had enough for my whole first year in the mission).

     I just got your email about the earthquakes. We felt a little bit here at around 3 am. It woke me up, and I felt kind of dizzy for a few seconds. Nothing like what you see in the movies with furniture crashing everywhere and the walls shaking. It was kind of just weird. I didn't know what had happened until the next day when everyone was talking about it. I would have hoped for some giant fissures in the ground or a raging fire or two, but I guess not. Pretty lame if you ask me.

       I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well. Tell Jess I said "hi" and to eat all the candy she can get her hands on, because sore throats are no laughing matter. Have fun in school Kate and Sam. Give your teachers some grey hairs!

Love,

Jake

Hey guys!

It's great to hear from you and see all your pictures. Spain looks awesome! I trust your giving the windjammer the business it deserves right now. Hearing all about it brings back some great memories. What ship are you on/how big is it?

Spain sounds like it has some amazing history. That's so cool. Those pictures look great too.

Dad, you're the best. Some fine Toledo steel mounted on my wall will go a long way towards impressing the ladies in college. Plus there's the fact that I can finally duel Sam now. Love ya

This week was normal. We did missionary work. We found one new investigator named Y. who could be promising. We also taught this really sweet lady named V. who wants to be baptized but can't because her husband won't give his permission. So be praying for her!

Other than that there's not much new. We're playing soccer at the church right now.

How many ice cream cones have you eaten so far?

Love,

Jake

Pioneer Day Festivities, Wolfhounds and Cleaning up the Area Book

28 July, 2014

Hey everyone!

 This week in Gridley has been pretty good. We've been driving around

 trying to contact everyone in the area book that the sisters were

 teaching before. They have a bunch of "new" investigators who haven't

 been taught in months (or in some cases years) and it doesn't say why.

 I guess they just never got around to dropping them. So now we're

 cleaning up the area book, finding out who's interested, who lives

 where, etc.

 We managed to find a new investigator who expressed interest in coming

 to church.  We found him while trying to contact one

 of the sisters' investigators who apparently moved out months ago. He

 was really friendly and said we could drop by this week. Shotgunning

 an area is a unique experience. For now we're just trying to get to

 know everyone. Gridley is a nice place. There are tons of Mormons

 here. It's almost like Heber in a way.

 We had interviews with President on Friday - everything good there.

 We're probably going to be moving (again) in the next few weeks

 because this little house we're in right now stinks. It only has

 electricity in half of it, and there's no water pressure to speak of.

 Sometimes the toilet just stops working. So President is going to have

 us move to a new place, which is fine by me. I haven't even unpacked.

 Lots of moving this transfer I guess.

On Saturday we had a stake Pioneer Day party. There were probably over

 300 people there. We got free hamburgers and ice cream, played some

 softball, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Speaking of softball, Elder

 Roberts and I got drafted onto the Spanish Branch's team in the stake

 softball tournament that's being played right now. We're playing in

 the championships next Saturday. I'll let you know how it went.

 Well that's all the news that's fit to print.  Have a fantastic time in Spain! Travel safe!

 Love you all!

 Jake

 P.S.

 Here's a picture of me fighting an Irish Wolfhound

 

Gridley, CA

21 July, 2014

21 July, 2014

Hey everybody,

So I'm here in Gridley now. It's a small town, but much bigger than Colusa. We're in a Spanish branch again, so that's cool. We've been told that we should expect to be replaced by sisters again in four weeks, so I'm not even going to unpack. We live in a tiny little house in the middle of an orchard. Only one of the three ac units work, so it gets pretty hot in there during the day. Other than that, things are good. The weather hasn't been too hot these past few days. Mid 90s, nothing above 100. I guess I can't really say much about the work since we've only been here for two days.

I'm doing well. Time is going by fast :)

It's great to hear from all of you. I'm glad you're doing well.

We played soccer for three hours today. It was awesome. I'm exhausted though.

I sure miss running in Dutch Hollow. It's awesome that we have all of those trails so close to home!

I'm also really excited for your family vacation. It's going to be a blast :)

Love you guys!

Jake

July 18, 2014

****Note****

Elder Nichols has been transferred again, after only one week in Colusa.  Some changes in missionary availability in Gridley necessitated the Mission President to move Jake and his comp there for four weeks.  Where he'll be after that, we don't know:)

On the Ground in Colusa

 14 July, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, I'm on the ground in Colusa.

First impressions: the water tastes like butt. That's the only complaint I'll verbalize about this area. I just needed to get if off my chest. There's a ton of sulfur in the water here because we're near a dormant volcano or something like that. So we have to drink filtered water.

Colusa is... Interesting. It's a tiny little town wayyy out in the countryside. We actually cover four or five small towns in total. I'm pretty sure we have the biggest single area in the mission here. Mt. Shasta could be bigger, I'm not sure. From what I've seen here the elders before me have hardly had work in English, let alone Spanish. Van Leeuwen told me on the way out that he was surprised they hadn't closed the area this transfer. Encouraging, that. But I guess it just gives me a chance to do some work. We found four new investigators here last week, both Spanish speaking couples. We taught them some good lessons and we're hoping to teach both of them again this week. I feel bad for Elder Roberts because being trained here, his Spanish is more or less still at "fresh out of the MTC" level. We'll get to work on that too though.

Sweet bonus of being in an English branch, we get fed dinners almost every night!

So, aside from the butt water, it's steady as she goes.

We met President Marston last Friday. He's a pretty cool guy. Very down to earth. He'll be a great mission president. We're going to have interviews with him this month.

I'm going to email him today to ask if we can get some help with starting a Spanish branch out here. We need Spanish-speaking members to help us fellowship, because starting a branch from an English branch where nobody speaks Spanish would take some seriously golden investigators.

On Sunday Elder Roberts and I got roped into singing in sacrament meeting, then we had to teach sharing time in primary because the teachers weren't there. I wasn't really looking forward to teaching a bunch of little kids, but it wasn't bad. Kind of fun, actually. We pretended to be reporters talking about baptism, and we had the kids come up and answer questions. It was goofy, but they liked it.

So yeah, that's me. It was great to hear from all of you. I'm glad you survived trek!

Love,

Jake

New Branch in Colusa!

7 July, 2014

Hey er'body,

Well, I got transferred. I'm going to be District Leader in the new Colusa Area. Apparently we're responsible for trying to get a Spanish branch started there. I'm excited to be leaving, but nervous about my new responsibilities at the same time. It'll be a good learning experience. My goal is to be more positive about my area whether it's good or bad. If it's bad, I'll make it good. If it's good, I'll make it great. My new companion is Elder Roberts from Texas. I've met him before and he's cool. Elder Tepox will be staying here to become senior companion to a younger missionary.  I'm going to make a list of people to focus on for them to use after I leave.

So yeah. Goodbye Citrus Heights!

Well, that's about it. I got food poisoning on Saturday, and then had to translate fast and testimony meeting the next day without any notice beforehand. Bonus: the stake president was there visiting that day. Needless to say I was pretty nervous. But he came up afterwards and told me I did a great job. According to him it was way better than other times he'd been there. That made my day. It also strengthened my testimony of fasting because I know I could never have done as well as I did if I didn't have the help of the Holy Ghost.

On the 4th of July everyone conveniently forgot the rule about no fireworks for a few hours and chaos ensued. Elder Johnson lit his "6 month tie" on fire, despite us telling him that missionaries don't really do that. We barbecued some hamburgers at a members house too. It was lots of fun. I'd send pictures but I forgot my camera. Sorry mom!

Love you!

Jake

New Mission President

June 30, 2014

Hey Mom and Dad,

 Sorry this is coming late again, we were ice skating this week. Fun stuff. I only "ate it" twice. This week was stake conference and we got to hear some outstanding talks. One of them that I really enjoyed was about temples and how important they are. We're so blessed to live in a place where we have easy access to temples on a regular basis.

Also, at stake conference there was a special missionary segment where they basically told all the members that we need more referrals and that tracting is quote: "a waste of time".  Thank you stake conference! Hopefully we get some more help from the members in the near future.

We also got a truck to use this week which is pretty cool. Our car is in having some body work done for a few days.

We found a new investigator this week. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon in his free time. Hopefully he follows through. We'll go see him again this week. This Sunday is transfer calls. I feel like having a change of scenery but there may still be work to do here for me, so we'll see what happens. Meanwhile, our other investigator has stopped drinking once and for all and says he's committed to coming to church. We had a lesson in the Bishop's house this week and he cooked us honey-glazed Dutch oven ribs for dinner. They were incredible. Our investigator accepted a commitment to be baptized. Hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks here.

I forgot to tell you that we had a goodbye meeting with President Weston by the way. He flies home tomorrow. As of today, President Marston is officially in the mission as mission president.

 Mom, something that really helped me improve my accent was reading aloud in Spanish and trying to imitate the accents I'd heard. That was probably the biggest thing.

That's all the big stuff that happened this week.  

Well, my second year has begun.  It’s gone by so fast!

Anyways, love you guys!

Jake

 

23 June, 2014

Hey mom and Dad! Sorry this is coming in late. We were having a war with PVC pipe nerf blowguns. It was sweet.

First things first, my eye is fine. We were playing soccer and I took a shot to the face. Afterwards my vision was blurry and I couldn't see very well around the bottom edge. I thought it was just my contact but then I took it out and it was still there. So at that point I figured I should probably call the nurse. She told me to go to the urgent care center and they referred me to the optometrist. The next day it was better, but nurse Dwyer still wanted me to go just to be sure. The optometrist dilated my eye to clear it up and said sometimes cells in your eye can get knocked loose and cloud your vision for awhile but it clears up. So that's the long and boring story that was part of a long and boring week.

The highlight of this week was that we got to drive back up to Orland/Chico for a baptism of elder Tepox's.  It was a fun experience and I got to see Elder van Leeuwen again. He's doing great.

Nothing very interesting happened this week. Just business as usual.

I'm sure the funeral was hard on everyone. That can't be an easy thing. I'm glad to hear the Tingeys are taking it so well though.

Glad you got my letter dad. It's good to hear that you haven't gone soft on me ;)

Plus now you have a century bike ride t shirt. Street cred!

This week we have zone conference, which should be cool. I'm wondering if we won't meet our new mission president there. I don't know though.

I don't know if I've ever told you but we get to eat with a family in our ward almost every Sunday.  The mom is an amazing cook. Her burritos with french fries in them are legendary.

That's about all.  Sorry this email was pretty dry. It's a reflection of California in general.

Love

Jake

Day after Father's Day

 

Que tal Pa!

Happy Father's Day! You're the best dad ever. Thanks for being my wingman, for staying cool under fire, for being my eye in the sky. The trail has been rough sometimes, but I know I can always count on you to watch my six for tangos in the brush.

I sent you a letter, but it'll probably get there late. Sorry about that. So for now just know that I appreciate you.

Well, the number one most exciting thing that happened this whole week was that on Saturday our investigator family got baptized! The son asked me to baptize him, so that was really cool. That was the first time I've ever actually baptized a person before. It was a great experience. Hopefully the dad will be able to come to church and follow suit in  a few weeks here. It was awesome to finally see some of the fruits of our labor here after two hard transfers. I'm so glad I got to have that experience. I'll send some pictures as soon as I can.

In other news, later that same day we had to drive an elder to the ER because he ran his head into a low-hanging roof so hard that he gave himself a pretty serious concussion. The kid is like 6'6". Anyways, he was pretty much out of it. Couldn't even walk straight. So we got to sit around for a few hours there while they tried to figure out if his brains had been scrambled or not. Luckily, he'll make a full recovery. Sister Dwyer, the mission nurse, arrived on the scene to do the important task of supervising our sitting around doing nothing. Elder Gentry was complaining about having sinus problems, and she immediately recommended something called a "nasal spritz" which apparently offers a plethora of health benefits besides clear sinuses. I recommended that she buy a subscription to Prevention Magazine. Seems like the kind of thing mission nurses would enjoy.

La Copa Mundial is going right now, so that's all our members are talking about. It's kind of cool to see a bunch of people get so excited over the same thing. Like the Olympics minus events like curling and handball. Plus it's soccer. So it's awesome. I heard the US is up against Ghana, Germany, and Portugal for the prelims so we'll probably be lucky if we advance to the next round.

I've noticed that my Spanish is getting a lot better, which is really cool. I had to translate Sacrament Meeting the week before last, and it went a lot better than it ever had before. I definitely believe in the gift of tongues, and like you said in your letter Ma, everything runs on faith. I've noticed that when I just speak it as much as I can - even if I mess up - I get better. It's all about having confidence that Heavenly Father will help me.

I'll upload those photos as soon as I can.

Love you all!

Jake

The Good, The Bad and the Elderly

Dear Mom and Dad,

 Well, the craziest thing that happened this week was that I had to

 call 911 for the first time in my life on Friday.

 But before I get to that I'll talk about all of the less interesting

 stuff first. This week was pretty slow, unfortunately. We didn't get

 to have many lessons, and we didn't get around to see everyone on our

 list. I guess it just happens sometimes, but it still stinks. We went

 to Costa Vida to eat, and you'll be interested to know that we're now

 4 for 5 with people paying for us. There are SO many Mormons who

 aggregate there. Probably because Costa got started in Utah. But yeah.

 We've discovered that all you have to do is go there in pross and

 there will almost always be someone there who will come up and talk to

 you.

 Yesterday (Saturday) we went and helped someone move in 104 degree

 weather. It wasn't much fun.

On Thursday we rode our bikes out of the mission to go to the

 Sacramento Temple. That was also a great experience. I love visiting

 the temple. After almost a year, I realized there was a lot I'd

 forgotten, and I felt the spirit really strongly there. I didn't mess

 up nearly as much as a I thought I would during the session. It was

 great. We took a bunch of pictures that I'll send later if the bullion

 year old computer here work. I might as well use an abacus to send

 emails.

 Anyways, now on to Friday. So we were sitting in the church weekly

 planning and all of the sudden one of the guys who was mowing the lawn

 outside runs up and starts pounding on the glass door. We open it up

 and the first thing he says is: "Guys there's a huge fire going back

 there, someone should probably call the fire department."

 Sure enough, there were flames coming out of a dry creek bed running

 behind the church, tall enough for me to see them coming up over the

 edge of the creek bed from about 50 yards away. So I called 911 and

 told them where we were. Then I ran down there with two other guys who

 had been cleaning up around the church and started beating the flames

 back with some green tree branches dipped in water/trying to kick dirt

 over the fire. One of them grabbed a water cooler from their truck and

 started hauling water over from a spigot by the church building. Then

 firemen showed up about 10 minutes later and doused the flames with

 some kind of water/chemical mix that left big patches of foam down in

 the creek bed. Everything ended well minus the fact that my shoes got

 covered in ash and I smelled like a campfire the rest of the day. But

 yeah. That's the story of the time I got to be a firefighter on my

 mission. I rewarded myself with a Sangrita Blast Mountain Dew from

 Taco Bell. It's like Baja Blast but raspberry-flavored. It's also Taco

 Bell's only redeeming feature.

 So far we haven't got many new investigators. We talked to one lady

 who seemed really interested only to come back the next day and find

 out she'd gone in for an emergency operation on her appendix a few

 hours after we talked to her and is going to be in the hospital for

 awhile. Another interesting story: so we were talking to her friend

 outside her house (in Spanish). Her friend was in a car with another

 older lady who was driving, and clearly did not speak Spanish. We were

 asking her friend if there was anything we could do when this old

 white lady just snaps and butts in with: "I don't have time for this.

 Get out of here. Goodbye." I was pretty much lost for words. I tried

 to explain that we were asking if we could do anything for this lady

 in the hospital, but she wouldn't hear it. She just kept saying

 "Goodbye".

 So that was the time we got kicked off of somebody else's property by

 some old grandma. Maybe because she thought we were insulting her in

 Spanish? I'll never know. Maybe she just needs to drink more prune

 juice.

 Anyways, I'm on the downhill side, and it feels great. Our investigator

 family came to church yesterday minus the dad again, so the plan for

 now is to have the mom and the kids get baptized this Saturday because

 they really want to. The dad does too, and he know he needs to get

 to church, but they're basically living paycheck to paycheck right now

 and he has to work Sundays just to get by. He's a sincere guy, and I

 know he has a desire to be baptized. He also told us that when he's

 baptized he doesn't want to just do it and then go inactive because of

 his work. He wants to go all the way. So his plan is to work like

 crazy for another few weeks and save up some more cash so he can

 afford to not work on Sundays.

 So yeah. Things are good here in California, other than the fact that

 it's over 100 degrees every day.

 But yeah

 Love you all!

 Jake